Author: G.P.  Gottlieb

Publisher: DX Varos Publishing

ISBN: 978-1955065672

I love a good cozy mystery to warm up the cold winter months, and this was a great one to start out with! 

Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery by G.P. Gottlieb has everything that any good cozy mystery needs. It has a fun setting, a tough, but ultimately vulnerable heroine, and, of course, a mystery. 

This mystery takes the form of a dead body that gets found in the shell of a burned down building, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start back at the beginning. 

Alene Baron is the owner of a small cafe in Chicago called the 'Whipped and Sipped Cafe', which, despite making good money during the start of the pandemic, has begun to struggle in other ways. 

Dealing with the lack of customers and Covid restrictions, Alene and her employees struggle to keep up with online orders and sometimes to keep out of each others hair while they do so. But, all of the sudden, things get a lot more tense for Alene when a friend's boyfriend discovers a dead body. 

The friend comes to Alene for advice, but begs her not to tell anyone, despite the fact that Alene's boyfriend is a police officer. Eventually, however, the information comes out and a much more sinister crime is discovered that casts this one into a whole new light. 

Between working at the cafe, dealing with a deadbeat uncle who has suddenly come back into the picture, and potentially evading a murderer, Alene has a lot on her hands in this surprising, fun read. 

I have never read one of Gottlieb's books in the past but I will definitely be seeking them out after this one! This had just enough flavor to make it delicious, and just enough mystery to keep me guessing the whole way through! And I especially loved the recipes that were printed at the end! I was pleasantly surprised that the café was vegan and that the recipes in the back of the book are vegan as well. I am a vegan myself. I give Five stars for this highly caffeinated read! 

About G. P. Gottlieb

G.P. Gottlieb has been a musician, a teacher, and an administrator, but she’s happiest when she’s writing recipe-laced murder mysteries. GP Gottlieb has always experimented in the kitchen and created her own delicious vegan cookies and cakes. She is also an interviewer for the New Books in Literature podcast channel.

Gottlieb is the mother of three grown children and lives with her husband in Chicago.